Southern California -- this just in

Nearly 3,000 without power in Santa Monica

Southern California Edison workers continue to investigate a power outage Monday that left more than 2,800 Santa Monica customers in the dark, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

Crews began looking into the outage when it was reported about 1 p.m., said Lois Pitter Bruce. Six hours later about 1,800 customers were rerouted to other power sources while the rest remained without electricity.

Pitter Bruce said it was impossible to estimate when power would be fully restored.

“It’s some sort of issue with underground equipment, so that takes a little more work and effort to isolate the problem,” she said.

“There’s no telling what you’ll find. It could be rats or water or sewage -- you just don’t know," Pitter Bruce said. "They have to check and go through a series of processes to eliminate various causes. Underground is quite a different thing than above ground.”

The area still affected is bordered by Lincoln Boulevard on the west, Euclid Street on the east, Pico Boulevard on the north and Ocean Park Boulevard on the south.

[Updated, 9:20 p.m.: Power has been restored to all but
500 customers, Pitter Bruce said. A failed underground cable caused the
outage. Crews expect full restoration in a few hours.]